


All Hallows Eve

by SherlockRiverHekate



Series: Dude! What even is your life? [7]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27206552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockRiverHekate/pseuds/SherlockRiverHekate
Summary: Halloween isn't as much fun for the Avengers as it is for the rest of New York. They still find a way to celebrate and have fun though.
Relationships: Stephen Strange/Original Female Character
Series: Dude! What even is your life? [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1403473
Kudos: 3





	All Hallows Eve

Halloween was fast approaching, and while most of New York was preparing celebrations and parties; this was not the case at Avengers Tower or 177A Bleecker St. With the barriers between dimensions becoming more blurred, everyone was on high alert for monsters to come creeping across. Not to mention the human supervillains with a dramatic flair that have a tendency to cause havoc this time of the year.

Emily had just woken from a well-deserved eight hours sleep, when her phone lit up with a notification. Not willing to get up just yet, she wriggled one arm out from under the covers and grabbed the device. In her emails was a formal invitation to the Avengers Halloween party. Well, it was as formal as could be expected when Tony Stark was left to his own devices.  
The invitation specified that only Avengers and their significant others would be in attendance and everyone was technically on call. Stark Industries had long since given up on having an official Halloween event with Tony in attendance as invariably it ended with him leaving in the Iron Man suit when the Avengers were called out. That was also why the team party had a note about being on duty. The non-enhanced humans on the team occasionally needed to be reminded that they may be called up and that the really shouldn't be fighting monsters while blind drunk.  
Considering everyone at the party was still on call, Emily saw no reason that she and Stephen couldn't be in attendance. She responded as such, and then lay on her back, staring at the ceiling and enjoying the peace.  
That peace didn't last more than two minutes before the sound of breaking glass and a guttural roar sent her racing down the stairs.

"No. Definitely not," Stephen said with certainty.  
"Why not?" Emily asked. "After everything this month, we've certainly earnt the night off."  
"Why not?!" He exclaimed. "Do you see no issue with having the sanctum unattended on All Hallows Eve, the one time the barriers between dimensions are virtually non-existent?!"  
Stephen's fierce expression would have been more effective had he not been grasping a cup of coffee in both hands, still dressed in pyjamas at a little after one pm.  
"I never intended for the sanctum to be unguarded. The invitation was extended to Wong as well, but should he decline, he is perfectly capable on acting as guardian."  
Stephen made to interrupt but Emily held up a hand. She didn't look imposing either, also dressed in her pyjamas and sneakers, with some dirt and plaster in her hair from the most recent interdimensional visitor, but it was enough to make the Sorcerer Supreme pause.  
"And should Wong wish to attend, night here is still daytime in London. I have no doubt one of their guardians will come across to assist. Especially after your extended trip there last week."  
After a few moments of contemplation, Stephen nodded.  
"You can ask Wong. After last week I deserve a break. And why not enjoy the alcohol Stark will provide, at least it'll be good quality."  
Emily nodded, and then stood to rinse her cup. As she was about to leave she stopped.  
"You'd better start planning your costume." She commented.  
Stephen looked at her in confusion.  
"Didn't you see the sentence saying this is a costume party?"  
At his frown she laughed and hurried out of the room to get dressed.

It was a bit later in the month, only a few days before Halloween, and Emily had been sent to get Peter from school. It was a 'lab day' for Peter at the tower, but Happy wasn't available as he was in a meeting across town with Pepper.  
When Peter saw her waiting at the school, he hurried over to greet her.  
"Anything interesting happen today?" he asked curiously.  
"Thankfully, not yet. I don't want to say no outright. That'd jinx us," she laughed.  
"Surely something must have happened that was more interesting than AP Physics and my chemistry class." Peter complained.  
"Nope," Emily replied as they made their way through the school gates.  
"But how about I make it up to you with a milkshake?" She said, seeing Peter's dejected face.  
The mention of food cheered the teenager back up, and instead of finding a secluded spot to portal to the tower, they walked to a diner a block away.

They were seated at a small table outside, Peter sucking on a gigantic Oreo s'mores thick shake. Emily alternated between eating chicken bites and staring at Peter in a combination of wonder and nausea.  
"What's the matter?" Peter asked, before scooping up some whipped cream with his finger.  
"How can you drink that?" Emily scrunched up her face.  
"It's delicious! Want some?" Peter pushed the glass towards her.  
"I'd rather not," Emily replied, shaking her head. "  
Peter took another slurp, then sat up and looked right at Emily.  
"Oh, are you going to the Halloween party too?"  
When Emily nodded, his face lit up more.  
"Oh, cool. I'm going trick or treating with Ned, MJ and their siblings but they can't make it to the tower celebrations. So I was hoping there would be someone closer to my age there."  
"Peter, I'm like nine years older than you." She reminded him.  
"Yea, as opposed to twenty or more years," the teen countered.  
"Have you got a costume?" Emily asked.  
"Yea, but I want it to be a surprise. You?"  
"A few ideas," she admitted. "It'll depend on what Stephen chooses. And if we get called out that day."  
Peter finished his milk and sugar monstrosity with a final slurp, so they made their way to the tower.

Thankfully the morning of Halloween arrived and Emily had easily gotten ten hours sleep before waking naturally, rather than to any tragedy or alarm. Then, when she got down stairs, there was eggs and bacon waiting for her next to a cup of coffee. Stephen and Wong had just finished their own food.  
Wong had declined the invitation, but had an apprentice from London joining him later so that he could 'talk to Dr Banner and enjoy some of Stark's alcohol' as he put it. Personally, Emily thought he wanted to see how drunk Stephen and the other Avengers might get. Wong really did enjoy them making fools of themselves, provided it didn't damage reality or the multiverse, or Wong himself.  
"Nice of you to join us," Wong mentioned as Emily sat down in front of her food.  
"I have travelled to five different dimensions, fought a minimum of ten different creatures and assisted the Avengers with three villains, all in the space of one month. I have earnt this sleep in," Emily responded, before taking a large sip of her coffee.  
Wong looked across at Stephen and raised an eyebrow. Stephen just smiled slightly at him. She was usually like this before coffee, and Stephen couldn't really disagree with her summary of the month.  
"So, do you have your costume ready then?" Wong asked Stephen.  
"Yep," he popped the 'p'. "The Cloak is even going to help."  
Wong shook his head and left the room.  
"I'll be in the library," he called over his shoulder.

Stephen and Emily had decided to use a sling ring to get to Avengers tower. It would mean they didn't have to get through the New York traffic on Halloween, and also wouldn't need to be inconspicuous entering the tower itself.  
Emily also figured that it would be easier to get home, intoxicated or not. If Stephen could make a portal while almost literally freezing to death on Mount Everest, he'd be capable of doing one while drunk as well.  
They stepped out of the sparking circle, into the main shared floor of the tower. The whole floor was creatively decorated. There were fake cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, a few with fake spiders in them. On each food or drinks table, there were different carved pumpkins, lit up with scented candles from the inside. Judging from the patterns, each Avenger had been given a pumpkin to carve. Emily guessed the pumpkin with the precise neat lines was Natasha's. The tables themselves were also a work of art, each themed with something different. One had shiny coins and a treasure chest, another had crystal balls and a cauldron. A third table was decorated with coffins and wooden stakes. Each table had a different assortment of bottles of alcohol, mixers and plastic glasses. Halloween themed music was gently drifting through the room.  
"It looks amazing in here," Emily commented.  
"I have no doubt that Miss Potts was mostly responsible for the decorations," Stephen replied, placing a hand on the small of her back as they walked further into the room.  
"I have a feeling that Nat helped too," Emily said, gesturing to the vaguely Russian looking decorations in the room.  
"Oh, I definitely did," the red head said as she stepped beside them. The cloak lifted an edge to wave at her, and the assassin waved back.  
They looked across at her, looking at her costume.  
"Take a guess," she told them, doing a spin.  
Under the long green coat, Emily could see a yellow dress and a blue scarf also flared out as she spun. Underneath a blue hat, Natasha's hair was tied back in a ponytail now that it had grown long.  
Stephen looked at Emily, looking a little confused. Emily however, lit up.  
"Oh that is smart!" she commended Natasha.  
"Thank you," she smiled happily. "The opportunity presented itself, and I just could not pass it up."  
"Well, you look lovely," Stephen told her. Though, it was evident that he still wasn't quite sure what Natasha's costume was.  
"You have no idea, do you?" she said to the sorcerer.  
He shook his head with an apologetic smile.  
"Orphan Anastasia Romanov, from the animated movie." Emily told him.  
He smiled once he realised what the Black Widow had done. "Oh, well done!"  
The assassin bowed, and then looked both sorcerers up and down. "I'll leave you to find your drinks. There's a table for each of you."  
Then she disappeared into the crowd.

Natasha was correct. The table with the coffin and wooden stakes was obviously vampire themed, which fitted Stephen's old school vampire costume perfectly. The Cloak had even covered itself with a piece of black cloth to turn into a proper vampire's cape. Stephen didn't doubt that it would go wondering on its own at some point in the night. Another table, the one with treasure chests and shiny gold made a match for Emily's corseted pirate costume.  
Once they both had a drink, they wandered around the room. Emily hadn't spotted Peter yet, it was possible he was still out trick or treating. However, she could see Pepper in the far corner, or at least she assumed it was Pepper. It was a bit hard to tell considering her normally red hair was dyed black and in a neat bun on top of her head.  
"That is Pepper over there, isn't it?" She asked Stephen.  
"Yes, and this costume I do know," he told her.  
"Yea, it's Audrey Hepburn," Emily replied.  
"Mostly correct. The actress was Audrey Hepburn, but more specifically this is Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's." he corrected her.  
That did seem very fitting for Pepper, in both Emily and Stephen's opinion.

The next person, or people, that they spotted were Steve and Bucky. It was obviously meant to be a couples costume, the both of them were in brown robes. Bucky had lightened off his dark hair into a wavy mess and Steve had grown a bit of a beard. Emily thought she knew what they were supposed to be, but she doubted that Stephen would guess without some assistance. Fortunately for him, that assistance came in the form of an overly excited teenager who came through the elevator doors at that moment.  
"Oh my god!" Peter exclaimed, before rushing straight over to the pair. "Obi Wan Kenobi and his padawan!"  
Emily made her way closer to hear their exchange.  
Bucky high fived Peter, while Steve shook his head a little.  
"I knew you'd picked this on purpose Bucky," Steve told him.  
"Yea, we gotta do something to get the spider kid's favour," Bucky winked at Peter.  
"Doesn't look like you needed to try so hard," Steve commented. He nudged Bucky, who now took note of what Peter was wearing.  
The boy had a dark wig on, and dark cargo pants over a leather vest and long sleeve. Only one sleeve had been removed and his left arm was clad in a shiny metal covering. To complete the look, Peter had smudged some eyeliner around his eyes, but had forgone the mask in favour of actually being able to talk.  
"You're, me?" Bucky seemed a little confused.  
"You haven't seen Tony yet, have you?" Peter laughed.  
The two shook their head and Peter smiled. "Well, when you do, just remember that this was his idea."  
With that, Peter left to go get himself food.  
"Congratulations on the pop culture reference," Emily said to Steve teasingly.  
"I'm getting there," Steve said in his own defence.  
"Yea, but you haven't actually seen the prequels yet," Emily countered.  
"How did you know?" Steve asked.  
Emily opened her mouth to reply but Bucky cut in.  
"Don't tell him, it'll be funnier when he realises."

It was only a few minutes later when Stephen spotted the host of the party. And when he did, the sorcerer supreme almost choked on his second drink. He went to bump Emily to get her attention, but found that she wasn't by his side. However, her curled hair and tricorn hat was easy to spot standing by a large blonde in a purple dress. Somehow Stephen wasn't surprised to find that Thor had totally disregarded the traditional earth gender norms, and was instead dressed as a Disney princess. Laughing, he made his way to the pair. He wanted to be with Emily when Steve realised what Tony had chosen to come as.  
"Hey Rapunzel," Stephen greeted as he walked up to Thor and Emily.  
Emily's large smile when he showed that he knew what Thor was dressed on was pleasant.  
"Isn't this the most wondrous dress?" Thor asked him.  
Stephen nodded, but was distracted when he noticed that Steve had finally seen Tony through the crowd.  
"STARK!" Came Steve's voice, clear over all the other noise on the room.  
"Hey Rogers," Tony sauntered up. The movement looked strange in the costume that Tony was wearing.  
"Doesn't Tony's costume match mine perfectly?" Peter asked cheekily.  
"Sure does," Bucky replied to him, with a shit eating grin.  
"You're dressed as me…" Steve addressed Tony.  
"I am."  
"That's the original outfit."  
"It's a version of it, yea." It was obvious that Tony was having fun with this.  
"How did you even make that? The colour is perfect, there were no colour photos around then."  
It was hard to tell if Steve was bemused or a little bit miserable.  
"No need for photos when dear old dad had the original, what did you call it? 'Performing monkey?' costume."  
On the other hand, it was very easy to tell that Tony was enjoying this.  
"It really is accurate, Stevie. And look at Peter as me." Bucky was also enjoying this.  
Steve rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm just. I'm going to take this as a compliment and move on." He decided.  
"Good move," Peter said sagely, before running off somewhere.

Peter came up to Emily, a plate laden with food in one hand.  
"How are you going?" He asked her, mouth half filled with food.  
Emily was used to this, and was therefore able to distinguish Peter's words.  
"I'm good. We didn't get a call out today, so I had time to prepare."  
"Nice," Peter commented, offering the plate to Emily.  
She shook her head. "How was trick or treating?"  
"Yea, good" He replied. "The little ones got most of the loot. They did look pretty cute though."  
"Did you get anything?" She asked.  
"Yea, a few bars of chocolate," he told her. "But the best part was the number of little Spidermen I saw out there." Peter was grinning.  
"Awww how cute!"  
Peter waved at her. "You make a good pirate."  
Emily laughed. "I should. My cousin, no, second cousin. That's what you call your mother's cousin's child right?"  
Peter shrugged helplessly.  
"I think so. Anyway. He loved pirates. He wanted to be one when he grew up. He's only five years older than me, so we spent a lot of time playing pirate."  
"Aww, I can't even imagine you as a kid."  
Emily went to swat him and he dodged out of the way.  
"Go get more food, you brat," Emily said as he ran off.

Stephen and Emily were sitting on a small couch, Stephen's arm around Emily as she rested her feet or a moment. The Cloak of Levitation had unattached itself from Stephen's shoulders and some point and neither sorcerer were sure where it had gotten to. Their glasses were sitting on the floor beside them, Stephen's third drink and Emily's half finished second.  
"How did Steve take Tony's costume?" Bruce said as he sat beside them.  
"Doctor Banner," Stephen greeted him.  
"Just Bruce is fine," Bruce corrected.  
"Steve was definitely confused. But I think he just gave up." Stephen informed him.  
"It probably helped that Bucky found the whole situation hilarious," Emily added.  
"No doubt," Bruce smiled. "It's hard to say no to Peter."  
"It really is," Emily agreed. "You'd do anything for those puppy eyes."  
"Don't I know it." Bruce shook his head. "I wasn't going to help them with their costumes, but then they were having issues with the arm and Peter asked…" He threw his hands up.  
They surveyed the room for a bit, then Stephen turned to Bruce.  
"Asimov I presume?"  
"Good job Doctor," Bruce smiled. "Or should I say, count?"  
Stephen inclined his head.  
"He's the sci-fi writer, isn't he?" Emily asked.  
"He was also a biochemist," Bruce informed her.  
Emily nodded in understanding, then turned her head when she heard singing.  
"They're taking the hobbits to Isengard… They're taking the hobbits to Isengard, Isengard, Isengard…"  
Emily turned to see where the sound was coming from, when she saw Peter backflip off the railings, followed by someone else. They were dressed in a green tunic and leggings, and a quiver on their back. Long blonde hair tumbled over their face as they landed, obscuring the details, but the quiver on their back wasn't a toy. Which meant that there was only one avenger that this could be.  
"Oi! What'd I tell you two about jumping off of things?" Tony shouted.  
"Sorry," two voices called back, not even remotely apologetic sounding.  
"The kid I get, but I expected more from you, Legolas," Tony commented.  
"Oh look, he knows my costume!" Clint cackled.  
"They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" Peter called out, then ran to the other side of the room.  
Before he made it too far, Clint had removed an arrow from his quiver, fitted it to the bow and fired a suction cap at him.  
"I win, Winter!" Clint crowed.  
"Just don't break anything," Pepper called from where she was talking with Thor.  
"Yes Miss Potts," and "Sure Pepper," floated back to her. The owners of each voice were somehow hidden in the small crowd.

It was well after midnight when a slightly tipsy Stephen Strange and a mostly sober Emily portalled back into the foyer of the New York sanctum. The once immaculate suit was now slightly dishevelled and the Cloak had lost its black cloth at some point as well. Rather than sitting on Stephen's shoulders, it floated in behind them. With Emily's tricorn hat in her hand, her hat hair was strong. Her fringe was sticking to her head, and the curls had lost some of their bounce. In comparison, Stephen's slicked back hair had fallen out and was hanging over his forehead and one strand over his right eye.  
"How was the evening?"  
Wong walked out of the library.  
"Stark has EXCELLENT alcohol," Stephen smiled, his expression very relaxed.  
"How did the evening go here?" Emily asked, removing her shoes.  
"Fine. No excitement." Wong told her.  
"I am glad," Emily said, sighing. "Where's the apprentice?"  
Wong waved a hand at her. "I sent her back to London. I am fine here on my own."  
"Wong, would you be able to stay at least until morning?" Stephen asked.  
Wong rolled his eyes, but agreed. "Neither of you would be capable of defending yourselves or the sanctum."  
"Thanks Wong," Emily's eyes were already trying to slip closed.  
"Just this once," he told them.  
The just waved at him as they both went up the stairs to bed.

"I am very glad that Halloween only happens once a year," Emily commented as she washed her make up off.  
"One month of this mayhem is tiring," Stephen agreed.  
"I'm going to start preparing a whole plan for next year." Emily swore. "A rotating roster of apprentices from Kamar Taj to stay with us and assist."  
Stephen nodded. "Now that is a brilliant idea. I'll talk to the masters."  
"Tomorrow." Emily said, falling into bed.  
"Tomorrow," the sorcerer supreme agreed. "Or maybe even the day after."


End file.
